The evolution continues.
I was one of the first people I knew with email. I have an older brother who is an über-geek (two brothers, actually, and both nerdy geeky comp-u-philes, in the Apple-ish way) who I remember telling me about email (his old Compuserve account/email was something like 11@…and those accounts were numbered in order of sign-up) and, because I was a student at Ohio State at the time, let me know that I could get an account through the school. I did, and was one of the early “cool kids.”
From there things quickly evolved into text-based bulletin boards and then the earliest of web pages and before you knew it, I was getting a graduate school paper’s grade lowered because I used the internet for research and, as the French Culture professor noted, it wasn’t legitimate.
Fast-forward and now we have, essentially, entire universities online…good ones too. Even more importantly, we have entire communities of discourse we couldn’t have envisioned. People are talking to each other–people who might only have met at a conference, maybe–and they are sharing information at a rate unimaginable.
We have fabulous forums like APAnet and ASMP Pro. And I think people should participate on them, even when it means having to deal with some people who have their heels firmly dug into the past. But now were seeing amazing dialogue in other places–namely blog comments.
The discussions on sites like APE and Heather Morton’s blog have been incredibly enlightening as of late. And this is the direction communications are moving. It’s hard to keep up, in some ways, but we need to make the effort. I’d like to encourage more of you to participate on this blog and on others.
I approve almost every comment–I only have two rules: no personal attacks (on anyone) and you have to be identifiable to me enough to be clear that you are not some spammer. As long as you don’t violate those rules, your comments will get through.
The point is, as communications evolve, so to must we. We have more to read, watch, listen to, all provided on the ‘net. And almost all of these points of contact provide us with opportunities to grow and to grow our businesses. But it’s about participating in the conversation.
People who sit on the side and wait to get asked to dance, so to speak, will soon become irrelevant. If you’re shy, now is the time to get over that. Be a part of the conversation–help to shape it.
The evolution of the technology and internet over the last decade has been truly amazing to witness.
I can definitely relate to the geekiness, as I used to contribute a lot to some computer forums. It started out being non-participatory and just reading what others had to say and searching for the answers on how to fix my computer (it was a PC at the time). Then as I became more knowledgeable and confident I began to contribute a lot.
I’m at that initial stage now, as I’m jumping in with both feet into this industry, and I’ll finally be able to officially write about it on my own blog as of tomorrow. And you’re right, APE, Heather Morton, yourself, and so many others have provided an enormous service to anyone reading what you all are putting out there.
You are being a mentor to more people than you realize… but I guess you can always check your blog stats.
let the games begin! 🙂
being an old pro in a smaller market being rocked by the changes, it’s great to be able to find others going through similar things. I think back to the old says, where a handful of us pros would occasionally bump into each other at the lab, picking up our film. If the right combination of people showed up, we might h ave a 5 min conversation about the local market. Otherwise you were on your own!
Since you mentioned APE,… what are you’re thoughts on the conversation over there regarding the tracking of stats with email blasts? He kinda thought it was stalkerish and creepy, the way some photogs follow up with him.